Big Ideas

Corruption in many Pacific countries appears endemic, the Pacific has the world’s fastest growth rate of HIV infection and the Pacific is predicted to surpass Africa as the world’s poorest region in the foreseeable future

Is the Pacific not sinking but being sunk?

Aristotle - why is he one of the most influential thinkers of all time?

The ethics, values and science surrounding the bionic body.

Mary Norris: what copy editors do and why standards matter.

Steven Pinker: how the craft of writing can be improved.

In the future United States of Lionel Shriver’s imagination, the nation is virtually bankrupt by the year 2029. The US dollar is worthless. Gold is confiscated by the government. A cabbage costs more than 20 dollars. This is the dystopian future she presents in her speculative novel, "The Mandibles". Lionel Shriver delivered a provocative speech at the Brisbane Writers Festival, ridiculing the concept of cultural appropriation. In this wide ranging conversation, she talks to Paul Barclay about free speech, identity, the future of America and how it’s governed, as well as Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.

Gloria Steinem talks to Anna Bligh about her travels which formed her adventurous personality.

Comedy has evolved into many shapes and voices – and different tastes. So what characterises comedy? And what role does comedy have in art and society?

Grit - what it is and how it can be cultivated.

A market failure has prevented the development of vaccines against Ebola, MERS and other viruses. Ironically, emerging data suggest these vaccines might be quite straightforward to develop to licensure.

“The Australian Dream is rooted in racism”, says journalist and broadcaster, Stan Grant. As he tells Paul Barclay, he has long had a difficult relationship with Australia, angry about its post colonial history, about how his forebears were treated, and at how we continue to deal with indigenous people today. Stand Grant may have been a presence on our TV screens for decades, but he has lived with an inner turmoil, struggling to deal with his identity as an Aboriginal man in a country where the scars of history are yet to heal.